The European Commission has today decided to close infringement proceedings against Spain, Slovakia and Malta following their successful implementation of EU rules to tackle racial discrimination.
The cases had been opened because national legislation in these countries was incompatible with the EU's Race Equality Directive (2000/43/EC), adopted in November 2000 . The Directive prohibits direct and indirect discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin both in and outside employment.
Vladimír Špidla, Commissioner for Equal Opportunities, said: "Tackling all forms of discrimination has been a priority for this Commission and for me personally. The EU has a unique legal framework to ensure protection against discrimination, but it also has to be correctly transposed and applied at national level to be effective. I am particularly happy that, following action by the Commission, three more Member States have brought their rules into line with common EU rules."
The Commission has decided to close the infringement proceedings against Spain, Slovakia and Malta. All three countries have modified their national law to take account of the Commission's concerns.
For Spain, the Commission had raised two issues: (1) the required protection against victimisation was not complete under Spanish law and (2) the Race Equality Body, although formally created by the law transposing the Directive in 2003, had not been established in practice.
The first issue was clarified by Spain, notably regarding the applicable constitutional case law on judicial protection of human rights. The second issue was solved by an implementing regulation and the fact that the "Consejo para la Promoción de la Igualdad de Trato y la no Discriminación de las Personas por el Origen Racial o Étnico" (Council for the Promotion of Equal Treatment and Non-discrimination on the basis of Race and Ethnic Origin) meanwhile became operational.
For Slovakia, the Commission had pointed out that national law was not in conformity on the following points: application of the principle of equal treatment, definition of harassment, the concept of social advantage, the cases in which difference of treatment could be justified, and the fact that the principle of non-discrimination did not apply to non-Slovak European citizens.
The Slovak Republic has amended its anti-discrimination legislation to take into account the Commission's arguments, bringing it in line with the Directive.
For Malta, the Commission's concerns related to the material scope, as Maltese legislation appeared to contain an exception for banks and financial institutions, but this has been satisfactorily explained by Malta. Also, the independence of the Equality Body had not been mentioned in the Equality for Men and Women Act, and the word "determining" had been missing from the Maltese legislative provision relating to the exception for "genuine and determining occupational requirements". Malta has now brought its legislation in line with the Directive
